Chennai behind districts in PDS smart cards scheme

Smart ration cards that were expected to reach PDS consumers by January 2017 has been pushed back by a minimum of three months due to delay in linking Aadhaar card with ration cards. 

State food department officials said that a government order was expected soon so that additional sheets are affixed to existing ration cards for use for another six months. “When and how the additional sheets would be fixed will be explained by the GO” civil supplies commissionerate officials said. 

The entire exercise which saw ups and downs began when late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had announced that the smart card scheme in the state assembly in 2011 stating that smart cards would eliminate duplication of names in different family cards. 

The new cards were also expected to eliminate bogus ration cards, the main drain on the state funded universal PDS (Public Distribution System). Also, the new card was  expected to end the practice of cards that were not brought to shops being billed and such commodities being sold to private parties for a profit. Linked Aadhaar card scheme, the new cards were supposed to reach customers in 2012-2013. 

“But the scheme was bogged down by various issues including how the cards would be ‘scanned’ at the retail end. This resulted in the state government awarding the contract for approximately Rs 320 crore for PDS computerisation which was a needed if smart card operations were to be successful,” a senior food department official told DTNext. 

At that time, the cards were expected to benefit 1.89 crore families.

There was another reason for the new scheme becoming a necessity. “Ration cards are meant to provide food security for the poor and middle class. But the cheap cost of rice and other commodities lead to increased smuggling of commodities not lifted by middle class consumers. Also, some beneficiaries in a bid to get more rations to sell to private parties opted for bogus cards which became the bane of the system,” a top official added. 

This was revealed when the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) in 2012 faulted the state government’s poor PDS record maintenance as it was discovered that those included in ration cards (8.37 crore) exceeded the state population by more than 1.16 crore.  

But as ration card issue is an ongoing process, it required that the PDS database be constantly updated. Hence 

today the state boasts of more than two crore cards which benefit a total of 7.49 crore family members. 

Initially, the idea was to ensure coverage of the districts in the first phase by June 2015 with Chennai being added at the end of the programme. “And it was here that problems started. While the districts were able to accomplish higher coverage, we do not understand why coverage in Chennai is low,”  lamented a senior official. While Perambalur district tops in Aadhaar-smart card linkage with more than 90% coverage, Chennai ranks the lowest of all 32 districts with a mere 57%. Chennai’s poor coverage is cited as one of the reasons for the scheme being delayed by another three months. 

The idea that individual fair price shops (FPS) being provided with point of sale (POS) machines would consume time and slow down the process did not materialise 

as today all the 34, 773 FPS in 35, 077 locations have these machines   which are necessary to upload Aadhaar details onto the smart cards. Though some Chennai shops did try to coerce defaulting consumers into expeditious provision of Aadhaar details by withholding their rations, it failed as the government ordered that detail updating and issue of commodities could not be linked. 

“The state government cannot take tough action against defaulters as it would become a political issue,” commisionerate officials added. Nagapattinam and Ariyalur districts have shown more than 85% coverage. 

The only way to ensure Aadhaar-smart card linkage success in Chennai is to go in for radical measures. With the state government continuing with the universal PDS despite the Centre hiking paddy prices for supply from the central pool, only the smart card scheme can ensure that essential commodities are not wasted or reach smugglers.